Electro‐Ribbon Actuator‐Driven, Responsive Skating Robot Inspired by Water Striders

ABSTRACT

The biomimetic water strider robot is inspired by the biological water strider and is expected to be applied in fields such as environmental monitoring and reconnaissance. However, currently biomimetic water strider robots are mainly dominated by water pressure. This often leads to severe surface interference, high power consumption, and delayed response. Here, we introduce a lightweight (1.37 g) water surface skating biomimetic water strider robot driven by an electro‐ribbon actuator, which uses surface tension as the dominant force. This robot eliminates the need for a transmission system and achieves direct leg drive, minimizing energy loss and additional mass. Compared with other robots of the same type, this robot exhibits excellent performance, including fast response (millisecond level), minimal disturbance to the water surface (the pitch and swing angles are both below 0.2°), and lower cost of transportation (1.17 J kg ⁻¹ m ⁻¹ ). We further evaluated the motion stability of the robot. This work provides a foundation for the research of surface tension dominated biomimetic water strider robots and expands the application range of electro‐ribbon actuators.